Wayne State wins $165.9M medical research grant

Feb. 14, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Wayne State University's largest research contract -- worth $165.9 million -- was renewed Thursday for a second 10-year period.

The money comes from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. It pays for WSU to continue housing the Perinatology Research Branch.

The contract will keep the PRB, which conducts perinatal and maternal-fetal medical research, in Detroit through 2023. The PRB has helped more than 20,000 at-risk mothers, most of them uninsured patients of the Detroit Medical Center.

WSU projects the contract will have an economic impact of more than $347 million over the next decade. The PRB employs more than 130 physicians, researchers and staff members.

"This is terrific news," said Debbie Dingell, the chairwoman of WSU's Board of Governors in a press release. "A contract of this size gives us the resources to continue conducting groundbreaking research in this critical health area."

Other officials at the school also praised the news.

"This is great news for the university, but also vitally important for women and the families of Michigan," said Valerie Parisi, medical school dean. "Premature birth causes far too many deaths and disabilities. The research and discoveries developed by the Perinatology Research Branch are changing medicine and saving lives around the world.

"Remaining the home of the (PRB) ensures that WSU continues to be on the front lines of the battle against preterm birth."

The PRB has been at WSU's School of Medicine and the Hutzel Women's Hospital of the Detroit Medical Center since 2002.